Expand Your Child’s Artistic Mind this Summer at the Frist Center

Frist Center for the Visual Arts

It may only be March, but it is already time to start planning and registering for summer activities. Registration for the 2016 summer programs at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts has opened. You will want to check out the Summer Art Camp and the Summer Artlab programs offered to children, ages five to 18 years old. It looks like there will be a summer of fun and learning at the Frist.

Art is one subject that has been widely excluded in the public
schools and often gets forgotten or pushed aside in homeschools. I have to admit, each school year I have great intentions of doing some type of art in our school. Well, here we are halfway through the school year and we have not done anything in that area. If your school year has gone along in that manner, your children may enjoy spending time at the Frist Center this summer. Even better, they need no prior experience in art to benefit from the sessions.

Frist Center for the Visual Arts

“Frist Center summer camps are so very special. Our camps and ARTlabs are inspired by the current exhibitions in the Frist Center galleries, so each year the camp is completely different,” said Samantha Andrews, Frist Center Assistant Director for Experiential Learning. “Our art educators focus on the ideas, inventiveness and creativity of artists featured in our exhibitions, then apply that exploration to art-making processes in the studios.”

There are two Art Camp programs offered for two different age groups. Students, ages five to seven years old may choose from sessions “Bellissima! Beautiful Design” and “Pop! It’s Surreal!”. Students, ages eight to 10 years old, may choose from sessions “S.T.E.A.M. Power” and “It’s a Process: Film & Photography”. Each session will run for one week from June 20 to July 1 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. giving students an opportunity to participate in both sessions in their age group. To give you an idea of the popularity of the summer camps, one of the “Pop! It’s Surreal!” sessions is already full.
 

Frist Center for the Visual Arts

Students in the Artlab program will have a rare opportunity when participating in either of the offered sessions. Students, ages 11 to 14 years old, will create their own art bike in the “Bellissima! Art Bikes!” session and take their finished bike home after camp. Students, ages 15 to 18 years old, will work with an Emmy award winning animator in the “Dream Space: Visualizing the Unseen” session. These two-day sessions are offered only once, July 11-12 and 14-15.

“After their time with us, we hope Summer Camp and ARTlab participants have made new friends with like-minded interests, have a few new tools in their artist’s kit, feel a good sense of accomplishment and encouragement to create and have learned a little about the world around them,” said Andrews.

Andrews went on to share that purchases towards the summer camp enable the Frist Center, a non-profit organization, to employ local art educators and artists, provide camp scholarships for those with need, ongoing free family programming and educational community outreach.

You may conveniently register online for all of the summer programs. Space does fill quickly. A limited number of need-based scholarships are available. E-mail Coordinator Jessica Orvis for more information.


Jennifer Smeltser writes for HomeLife Academy. HomeLife Academy is an official private school serving thousands of home educators. For more of Jennifer's articles, visit the Homeschool Roster.